Montage or Elk Mountain for one day?

[gores95]

Hello. My seven year old daughter and I will be in Northeast PA (Green Town) for a couple of nights over President's holiday weekend. She is a really decent skier and can follow me down most anything! We want to ski that Saturday morning and afternoon pretty close by. Montage and Elk are both under an hour. I know crowds (especially on that Saturday) can be tough. We are also close to Tanglewood but it looks REALLY small and I am sure would get too crowded. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Marc

 

[BrockVond]

Well, i like both those mountains a lot but Elk gets the edge , imo, for being less crowded in general. Elk is also more of a family mountain, so a good choice to bring your daughter.

Have fun, wherever you go.

 

[SKI-3PO]

If driving distance is equal, I'd say Elk is significantly the better choice. The top half of Montage is useless in the area of terrain with any kind of challenge, which just leaves those 3 or 4 lower mountain trails. The "vibe" at Elk is much better too, more of a skiers mountain than Montage which overlooks "scenic" Scranton. :roll:

 

[lurch]

I grew up in Scranton and would ski Montage 7 days a week. I started skiing Elk wen I got my drivers license. It's a better shapped mountain and has more of a New England feel to it. I would go to Elk but make sure you get there very ealry so you can get some runs in before the President's Day crowd brings the place to it's knees.

 

[trackbiker]

I was at Elk on MLK weekend. They still were not 100% open so it may not be comparable to Pres. Day, but the crowds were not bad at all. Only waited in one line and that was right outside of the lodge for about 3 minutes. Head over to the side with the quad and double chairs for shorter lines. (You'll see it when you pull into the parking lot.) There were no lines there MLK weekend. There is a nice variety of trails on that side, mostly blue and black.
I'll be at Elk this Sunday so I'll have a better feel for the crowds to expect now that they are 100% open.

 

[rjc1976]

It's funny. Everytime I hear people talk about Elk, they say it's not crowded. I seem to pick the wrong weekends because I always seem to hit crowds there. In any case though, I'd pick Elk over Montage. I really feel that Elk is by far the best ski place in eastern PA.

 

[rjc1976]

Here's a nice little article I found on Elk:

http://www.skimag.com/skimag/article/print/0,13435,325927,00.html

 

[SnowbirdDevotee]

Elk of course, i live in the area. Elk has more of a true ski resort feel about it. Montage is a towny resort, true skiers prefer Elk. You life is in danger skiing at Montage!! - lots of fast out of control boarders or skiers, those that are standing up anyway.

But - why not try both places. For me I always want to ski a different place every day, why not! That's the fun of it. Hit Elk the first day, and maybe Montage on your way home, slightly closer.

PS - I just picked up my daughter at Montage last night, parking lot was full, but kid just told me they were no lines.

 

[gores95]

Thanks for all the replies. We will be in the area next Sunday and Monday so we are going to try Elk on Sunday and see how it goes. Looking forward to it and hoping we get some MUCH NEEDED snow this week.

 

[trackbiker]

Sounds like you made up your mind already. but just to let you know. Skied Elk today. Get there early! Not for the crowds but for the grooming. Started skiing right at 8:30 , except for one trail that they were making snow on and Tunkannock which was left ungroomed for moguls, the rest of the whole mountain was immaculate corduroy. Snow held all day except for some spots on the steeper trails. The cruisers were great all day.
Longest line all day was around 2:00. Maybe 5min. If you see that line outside of the lodge remember that it feeds two chairs, so it moves quickly. The North side was maybe one or two chairs all day.
Next week may be more crowded but today was one of the nicest days to ski all year, so I wouldn't expect it to be much worse if at all.
Have a great time.

 

[trackbiker]

gores95, just curious, what did you think of Elk?

 

[gores95]

gores95, just curious, what did you think of Elk?

I probably should have replied on this sooner but my daughter and I went on the Sunday of President's day weekend. Got there bright and early and trecked up the LONG hill to the main base. Bought an all day lift ticket for each of us ($82 total) and away we went. Initial couple of runs and the lift lines were not bad. By 10:30 or so the lines were CRAZY long. I do not remember longer lines anywhere I've been! They moved OK though. We went back to the East chairs only a couple of times instead using the North Chairs most of the day. Either way you could not escape the crowds. It seemed the line at the double north chair actually moved faster than the quad. Eventually we went in the single line.

Funny thing was since the lifts are not high speed the only congestion is at the bottom of the mountain. There were times that we were skiing on one of the winding blue squares and we stopped and we were the only ones around. Then we would get to the base and reality would set in! One note about food. Although the lodge was extremely crowded (we stopped for lunch about 12:30) food was really good and fairly inexpensive ($14 for the two of us).

As for the mountain you could pretend that you were in Vermont and it would not be a stretch. I was very impressed. Tunkhannock was similar to any Vermont bump run (just not long enough) and on the entire mountain it seemed they do a tremendous job in grooming and snowmaking. Very few icy spots although we are used to Mountain Creek, NJ so everything's relative! Employees helpful and smiling...skiers as well!

Overall we had a fantastic time and in talking with a few locals during the week the place is an absolute gem. If I had any recommendations it would be a high speed quad or two but that would probably result in more congestion on the mountain. I liked it so much I I am going back this Friday.
Sorry so late in posting this.

Marc

 

[trackbiker]

Thanks for the great report.
Sorry that the lines were so long. I don't think that you will have that problem this Friday.
"Got there bright and early and trecked up the LONG hill to the main base."
I found that their shuttles are very efficient at getting from the parking lot to lodge. Since everyone just holds their skis, there is a minimum of loading and unloading time.
Have a great day of skiing on Friday!
Bill

 

[gores95]

Thanks for the great report.
Sorry that the lines were so long. I don't think that you will have that problem this Friday.
"Got there bright and early and trecked up the LONG hill to the main base."
I found that their shuttles are very efficient at getting from the parking lot to lodge. Since everyone just holds their skis, there is a minimum of loading and unloading time.
Have a great day of skiing on Friday!
Bill

I saw the shuttle but it was packed as we arrived so we walked up the hill. Not so bad and when we were done we ended up by the lower lifts so we did not have to walk down.

This Friday is their last Winter Fest Demo Day and I am really looking forward to it!